Welcome to the September 2025 issue of The Magpie.

What an exciting past few weeks it has been.  The World Athletic Championships provided so many inspirational moments, including three amazing runs from Collingwood’s Mia Gross.  All reports had Mia do a blistering opening for the mixed 4x400m, a very impressive 200m and a solid start for the ladies in the 4x400m relay.  Mia could not have got to where she is without her team and coach John Nicolosi, club and MAD Track Team coach.  Congratulations Mia and John competing in the World Championships following on from a successful Olympics last year.  All at the club are extremely proud to see you out representing Collingwood Harriers on the world stage.

  Mia and John in Tokyo. Image: MAD Track Team Instagram.

The winter XCR season has finished, and well done to all members who competed over the winter.

A big thank you goes out to first year Winter Coordinator, Matthew Crawford for your regular reports, team organisation, 5 mile club championships and most importantly weekly catering.

Let’s rally the troops for the 2026 XCR winter season, see if we can’t get right up the pointy end of the competition and again challenge for premierships.

Attention now turns to the club’s 100^th summer track and field season.  Summer Coordinator, Steve Griffiths will be giving newsletter reports on all things track and field for Collingwood.

The Magpie Multies start the season with two days, October 4 and 5, of action packed Decathlons, Heptathlons and Pentathlons.  For more information and entry portal use the following link, HERE.Entry is free for Collingwood Harriers members.

With the AVSL season officially starting the following weekend (October 11).  There are a couple of rule changes to the AVSL rules.

The competition calendar below will keep everyone up to date with events and information for the coming summer season.

XCR Round 9 Burnley

Our longest run of the Winter Season took place at Burnley on 7^th September with 14 runners tackling the Half Marathon and 5 taking on the speedy 4km short course. The club picked up some reasonable results coming 2nd in Female 40+, 3rd in Male 40+ and 4th in Male 40+ SC. Abdi Rhoble led the club home with a brilliant 9th in the Open Half; our leading female runner Cara Foot coming 3rd in 40-44. Declan Loeckx was our fastest overall in the 4km coming 8th in U18 and Eugene Nemesi finished 7th in the Open 4km SC (3rd in 40-49).

Other great results included:

JP Caligiuri, 1st in M45-49

Magnus Michelsson, 1st in M50+

Andrew Evans, 3rd in M55-59

Eric Louw, 6th in M60+ SC

Zoe Delany, 9th in F40-44

Rochelle Calia, 4th in F45-49

CHAC 5-Mile Championships

It was pleasing for the club to bring the 5-Mile Championships back to its local home at T H Westfield Reserve in Fairfield on 13^th September. In brilliant sunshine and with decent enough numbers considering the late organisation of the event the men’s was once again taken out by Abdi Rhoble in a time of 27:22.4. Zoe Delany (with 'support' from children and a dog) took out the title for the women with a time of 39:29.8. Angus Buchan flashed home in 9:56.5 as the leading boy in the Junior 3km with Isobel Rhodes topping the girls' list with an 11:18.4 finish.

We retired to the clubrooms for the presentations, the parade of past champions and to enjoy the spread, always a great highlight of the day. As one of our only yearly get togethers, the 5-Mile is an important day on the calendar for our club to celebrate our history and share old stories.

Events like these live or die on both participation and the work of volunteers. I would like to thank Eugene Nemesi for his design of a great course (even the hill we all hated whilst we clambered up it); Chris Waldron for helping the early setup; Lucy Salt, Alex and Sylvie Collie for photos, marshalling and the heavy lifting in the kitchen; Alison Chapman for providing some tasty treats; Kevin Wigmore and Tony Williams for providing expertise at the finish line; and Steve Griffiths for all he continues to do for this club.

Abdi and Zoe after being presented with their sashes.

XCR Round 10 Tan Relays

After four months of fun and frivolity we made it to the last round of the XCR season on Saturday 20^th September with the Tan Relays event. Relay events are always great fun in a hectic atmosphere and bring our greatest participation numbers of all events. Our 60+ Men (Paul Viney, Tom Avram, Eric Louw) once again picked up medals coming in 2^nd place, with both our Male Div 2 and Female Div 4 teams finishing in 3^rd place. Of great note was Luke Shaw finishing 2^nd in the Open category in an incredible time of 10:55! (Second fastest of the day) Mikaila Young was our fastest woman home finishing a brilliant 10^th in the Open with a time of 13:35.

Some other tremendous top ten results from the day:

Max Luke, 7^th in U18

PaulViney, 2^nd in 60-64

Tom Avram, 8^th in 60-64

Peter Gaunt, 5^th in 65-69

Annabel Messer, 8^th in U14

Cara Foot, 3^rd in 40-44

Rochelle Calia, 7^th in 45-49

XCR Season Wrap

With another XCR Comp done and dusted it can be said to have been a mixed Winter season for the club. The top teams have held their ground and competition has been very good from all who have attended but depth has been sorely lacking with the relegation of our both our Male Div 4 and Male Div 5 teams reflecting that. Our 60+ Men had another great season finishing in 2^nd place, behind only an APS bunch with such depth they run two teams every week.

A lot of members ran great to pick up Champion Athlete Points throughout the season with the final rankings reflecting quality and consistency. Our runners who had top ten finishers were:

Declan Loeckx, 7^th in U18

Eugene Nemesi, 2^nd in 40+ SC

Cara Foot, 2^nd in 40-44

JP Caligiuri, 6^th in 45-49

Rochelle Calia, 8^th in 45-49

Magnus Michelsson, 1^st in 55-59

Tom Avram, 5^th in 60+

Eric Louw, Eq5^th in 60+ SC

Final Ladder Rankings

I would to like to thank everybody (all 55 of you) who came to even a single event this season and hope it was enjoyable. Participation is the key to our success in both the racing itself and as a community club. The club aims to continue to find ways to connect with the running community and provide pathways for juniors to be involved, hoping to build our participation numbers particularly in light of our upcoming centenary. Important thanks also to everyone who has volunteered in some capacity this season including (in no particular order): Alice Callagher, Aleesha and Kevin Kondys, Neil Mathews, Tony Dell, Eugene Nemesi, Steve Griffiths and Kevin Wigmore.

The new AVSL Summer Season is upon us!

Provisional Timetables can be found - HERE.

AVSL Round1 – Williamstown Athletics Track, Saturday October 11^th.

ENTRIES OPEN – OCTOBER 1^ST AT 5:00 PM, through Athletics Victoria Entry Portal.

As mentioned above there have been some changes this AVSL season.

What HASN’T changed:

- Collingwood is in Zone A. We would like Collingwood athletes to compete at the allotted venue where possible.

- Athletes can compete at the Zone B venue if necessary – points do score for the Club.

- Athletes can compete at country venues – scores count.

- Athletes can enter as many events as they like – only best THREE performances score.

- A Relay can be done as part of your program – i.e. fourth scoring event.

- Club uniform, including black shorts/leggings must be worn – don’t forget your numbers.

- Athletes must check in for the day’s competition at least 1 hour before starting time.(This can be done online, or at the track upon arrival.)Here is a link to the guide for checking in.

We need you competing as often as possible!

What HAS changed!

- When registering for competition, Zone A athletes have first option at events at the Zone A venue. Entries open on the Wednesday10 days prior to the competition (same as last year). Entries are then opened, at NOON on the Friday following, for all other athletes to fill event sheets.

- Similarly Zone A athletes CANNOT enter events at OTHER venues until NOON on the Friday.

More information can be found in the AVSL Members Guide - HERE.

This is our HUNDREDTH Track Season – let’s make it a ripper!

The First Tuesday of The Month!

Yes – it’s on again! Collingwood’s World Famous 400s session is on the first Tuesday of the month (Oct 7^th) beginning at 6:15pm.

A great session, not only for general fitness, but to also improve your time/pace judgement. Suitable for everybody!

We have had great numbers in recent months – let’s keep it up!

Farewell Claude

The Club was sad to hear of the passing of Life Member, Claude Martin in late August. Claude was one of our very talented band of walkers in the 1960/70 era. He competed in our A Grade teams many times and was a very able back up to Bob Gardiner for a number of seasons.

Perhaps his best result was a second placing in the Victorian 50km Championship in 1975. He followed this with the Bronze in the same event in’76.

Two of his sons, Alain and Trevor, also competed for a few seasons, with Alain holding a couple of junior walking records that stood for quite some time.

Claude liked the long stuff. He became a ‘Centurian’ by race walking 100 miles in under 24 hours. Some years later (1984) he ran 100 miles at the Essendon track and is thought to be the first athlete to do the walk/run double.

Claude was a pastry chef by trade. Needless to say the year that the ‘sweets course’ of our Progressive Dinner was held at the Martin family home was an outstanding success.

Unfortunately Claude’s funeral service was on the same day as our 5 Mile CCC, however the Club was represented by long time friend and colleague, Bob Gardiner.

The Winter Closer!

The Tan Relay at King’s Domain closed the 2025 Winter Season on September 20^th. Our male Divvy 2 team was third across the line in their division.We are all still talking about Luke Shaw’s hot lap under 10min.

Thirteen year old Annabel Messer stepped up and made her senior debut for the Club in our Divvy 2 female team, a real future talent.

Let the Old Times Roll!

At the recent Club Five Mile we were again very happy to have a number of past winners in attendance for the day. Apart from Barry Gust mentioned elsewhere in this issue of The Magpie,past winners Alison Chapman, Sharee Sharam, Janette Chapman, Robert Hendy, Paul Twining, Ian Minter, Magnus Michelsson, Chris Waldron and Dale Carroll were able to get along to join in the celebrations.

They, among others, saw Zoe Delany win her first and Abdi Rhoble make it a hat trick in our

time honoured championship.

Three of our more senior gentry, Graeme Scott, Allan Minter and Hartley Tobin, all came to be with us (the latter two from quite long distances) and Bruce Ballard was also a welcome attendee, albeit from a little nearer by. Jeff Sharam was another to travel quite a way to be at the rooms. Jeff probably ran in a few of our Fives, but didn’t manage to match his better half with a win.Bob Gardiner did get to the event after attending Claude Martin’s service in Werribee.

And it was again great to have Albert Collie, the grandson of Jack White (winner 1926-1927) with us for the day. This year Albert brought his brother Daryl along to have another look at proceedings.

The Multies Are Back!

There is still time to enter for the The Magpie Multies.

There is no cost for Collingwood members.

Even if you are not keen to do the whole event, members are welcome to participate in ‘some’ individual disciplines on either day.

Please email Steve Griffiths should you wish to participate in an individual discipline.But, you have to be a current financial member.

steveg@techinfo.com.au

2025

October 4-5

Magpie Multis – George Knott Reserve.(read more and enter here)

October 7

Griffo's 400 session

October 11

AVSL Round 1 - Williamstown.(read more)

October 12

Melbourne Marathon Festival.(read more)

October 18

AVSL Round 2 - Doncaster.(read more)

October 23

Box Hill Twilight – Box Hill. (read more)

October 25-26

Victorian All Schools Track and Field Championships (Weekend 1).(read more)

October 26

Burnie 10 - Australian 10km Road Championships. (read more)

November 1-2

Victorian All Schools Track and Field Championships (Weekend 2).(read more)

November 4

Griffo's 400 session

November 6

Knox Classic. (read more)

November 8

AVSL Round 3 - Keilor.(read more)

November 13

Vic Milers Club Meet 1 - TBC.

November 15

AVSL Round 4 - Doncaster.(read more)

November 20

Victorian 5,000 m Championships – Lakeside Stadium. (read more)

November 22

AVSL Round 5 - Aberfeldie.(read more)

November 27 (TBC)

Collingwood Classic 2025 – George Knott Reserve.

November 29

AVSL Round 6 - Doncaster.(read more)

December 2

Griffo's 400 session

December 4-8

National All Schools Track and Field Championships.(read more)

December 12-14

Victorian Track and Field Relay Championships – Lakeside Stadium. (read more)

December 13

Zatopek: 10 – Lakeside Stadium. (read more)

December 18

Vic Milers Club Meet 2 - TBC.

2026

January 26

Collingwood Harriers Athletic Club 100^th Birthday.

Events to be confirmed

Collingwood Little Athletics

Collingwood Little Athletes wrapped up the cross country season with some outstanding results at the Australian All Schools XC Championship held in late August at Ballarat. These included:

Australian All Schools XC Championship  

U12 Boys – Oscar Horne 10^th (10:51 – 3km)

U13 Girls – Clementine Morley 15^th (11:29 – 3km)

U14 Girls – Annabel Messer 14^th (11:00 - 3km)

U14 Boys – Oliver Horne 11^th (10:16 – 3km)

The upcoming summer track season at Collingwood Little Athletics commences on Friday the 10^th of October. The registration portal will open in late September. A registration link will be available on our website www.clac10.org.au shortly. 

Our weekly training session has started and is held every Tuesday from 4 – 5pm at the athletics track so feel free to come along to get ready for the upcoming season.

Collingwood Masters Athletics

Collingwood Masters Athletics meet at the George Knott Reserve for competition and training every Tuesday from 7pm.

Every Sunday at 4pm a masters sprint group meets for training.This session is great for those wishing to improve their sprinting.

Recently the Victorian Masters Athletics hosted the 'Masters Winter Challenge' at Doncaster Athletics track.The Collingwood Masters group being very well represented produced very good results.With the highlights listed below:

Keith Howden - (80+) 150m - 24.52

Andrew Dodd (55+) - 150 - 19.42...then backed up in the 300 with a 42.87

Azain Raban (50+) - 150m - 19.56

Anna Corney (55+) 150 - 25.49

Shelly Gorr (50+)60m - 8.78 then a 150m - 21.55.

Dr John Russell - (80+) 150m - 28.60

Scott Lovell - (60+)60m - 8.67

Andrew Evans (55+) 3000m - 10.31

Jim Hopkins - (75+) 3000 - 16.44

In the medley relay (Four runners with combined ages that add up to more than 240), the Collingwood boys recorded an emphatic 50 second victory.

Everyone, all ages and abilities, are welcome to join in with the Collingwood Masters group.A small fee applies, which goes towards providing evening supper.

Club Uniform and Merchandise

Treat yourself to some new training gear.

In collaboration with Sub4 Apparel, Collingwood Harriers have designed a range of training/warm-up tops and apparel.

The long sleeve, short sleeve and singlet are made from Sub4's premium comfortable lightweight DRYLYTE fabric.

The hoodie is made from a thick charcoal grey fleece, has black and white prints front and back.

Top it off with a Collingwood Harriers running cap.

All merchandise items are available through a made-to-order site hosted by Sub4. 

The link to the made-to-order shop is now closed.Look out for future notifications when the link reopens.

www.sub4.com.au/category/collingwood

Keep the head warm through winter with a Collingwood Harriers Beanie, available through the club shop link below.

Purchase Beanies HERE

Competition Tops can also be purchased through the club portal below.

Purchase Competition Singlets HERE

Purchase Competition Crop Tops HERE

News from the Committee

The committee is currently in the process of establishing new and updating existing Club Policies.From Club Records, Life Membership, Athlete Support, Coaching Code of Conduct and more.Existing policies can be viewed on the website, (more info here).

The committee is calling for input from club members in policy development.

Have your say on the Club Code of Conduct.

The Collingwood Harriers Committee is developing a revised Club Code of Conduct. The code will outline the expected behaviour and standards within the club to ensure we continue to have a positive and respectful environment. The committee wants to hear from members who have thoughts on what should be included in the new code. Your input will be used to draft the code of conduct, which will be reviewed by the committee at a future meeting. If you have views on this and would like to provide input, please get in touch with our club secretary, Alex Collie, via secretary@collingwoodharriers.com.au

At our recent Club 5 Mile Cross-Country Championship we were again rapt to have a good number of our past winners in attendance for our Parade of Champions. This year Barry Gust was the ‘earliest’ winner on show.

Barry first won our Blue Ribbon event in 1960 – yes 65 years ago! He had joined our Club from the Yallourn Club a year earlier. In 1961 Barry made it two in row after a keen tussle with two of our champions – Norm Duff and Brian Clarke.

The next year saw another very competitive race with Barry finishing second to Brian by just one second!

The closest finish in the history of the event.

"You might run faster than me.But you will never run harder!"  Percy Cerutty

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